insurance

Crop insurance can be an important tool to help reduce smallholder farmers’ risk from weather-related shocks. However, many smallholders are not able to access crop insurance because their farms are too small and too remote for insurers to affordably verify crop damage.

Agriculture is undoubtedly risky, and the risk of a bad year discourages farmers from investing in high-yielding activities. By building resilience, agricultural insurance can help farmers improve their productivity and provide food security. The Indian government has therefore implemented a new agricultural insurance scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). On December 21, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC) jointly organised a workshop on the PMFBY.

A recent paper in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics analyses whether demand for weather index insurance behaves as expected regarding price, the degree of basis risk (an index’s inability to accurately represent the individual losses of an insured farmer), and farmers’ risk aversion in Madhya Pradesh, India. This is relevant as farmers in India, especially smallholders, face significant income and livelihood risks from weather events.

IFPRI’s 2016 Flagship Global Food Policy Report provides an overview of major food policy developments and events over the past year with a particular focus on how food systems around the world can contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

IFPRI’s 2016 Flagship Global Food Policy Report provides an overview of major food policy developments and events over the past year with a particular focus on how food systems around the world can contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

IFPRI gratefully acknowledges the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for its financial support of the India Food Security Portal.

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The Food Security Portal, facilitated by IFPRI, aims to provide improved food security for the world's poor and increased resilience of global food systems against food and financial crises. The project brings together international, regional, and country-level data, news, and research aimed at meeting countries' immediate food security needs, as well as building long-term global food security. The open-access project encompasses a global research-based monitoring and capacity-strengthening device for successful identification and implementation of the appropriate policy actions in response to food crises. The Food Security Portal is designed to pool information in structured ways and ensure data quality, timeliness, and relevance, as well as the opportunity for collaboration among policymakers, development professionals, and researchers.